Muesli Muffins
Prep Time: 20 minutes | Rest time: 1 hour | Cook Time: 17 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour, 37 minutes | Serves: Approximately 18
I’d like to say these are “healthy-ish” muffins, but who am I kidding? Even though they are made partially with whole wheat flour and unsweetened applesauce, there is still ample sugar to sweeten them, making them soft and tender and delicious.
Muesli is a mixture of rolled old fashioned oats, dried fruits, nuts and seeds. That’s the basic version… You can find recipes online to make your own at home if you really get into a Muesli kick.
Looking at the mixture, you might think it’s just a fancy or confusing word for granola, but the two aren’t quite the same. Granola is baked, while Muesli is not. Granola usually has a sweetener added pre-baking to bind the ingredients together in those sweet, little clusters we so love to crunch. Muesli is a “loose” mixture with no sweetener added. Both can contain nuts, oats, seeds, and/or dried fruits.
A note on the baking here. If you can take the time, when the batter is all combined, cover the mixture and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, up to overnight. Starches from the flours absorb moisture, the batter thickens, and the gluten relaxes creating a better muffin. Muffins are tender and more domed on top. Beautiful and tender make a wonderful muffin! However, you do not have to let this batter rest; you can bake immediately, but the recipe is written for the best results.
Different brands of Muesli vary slightly with any added sugars or dried fruits. I have tried Bob’s Red Mill and Familia. I was pleased with both brands. The nutrition chart is calculated using Familia brand Muesli.
Some Muesli comes with dried fruit, but I add the dates anyway for some extra flavor and texture.
I hope you enjoy these “healthy-ish” muffins!
Muesli Muffins
I’d like to say these are “healthy-ish” muffins, but who am I kidding?
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 ounces unsweetened applesauce
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, spooned and leveled
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups Muesli
- 1 cup dates, chopped
- 1/2 cup apple, peeled and grated
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
Topping:
- 1/2 cup Muesli
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
Instructions
- If baking the muffins immediately, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease or line 2 muffin tins with paper liners. If allowing the batter to sit, preheat when necessary.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, and salt. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed, combine the butter, sugar and applesauce.
- Turn the mixer down to low and add the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition. Add the vanilla with the last egg.
- With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk in 2 additions.
- When the flour is almost completely combined, stop the mixer, raise the head and scrape the batter in the bowl to make sure everything is thoroughly mixed. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Add the grated apple and dates, gently folding to thoroughly combine the batter.
- Cover and place the bowl into the refrigerator for an hour or overnight.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- In a small bowl, combine the topping ingredients together (like a streusel). Set aside.
- Divide the batter evenly in the muffin tins, until almost full. I used a #12 disher that worked perfectly for standard size muffin tins.
- Top each muffin batter with about a tablespoon of the topping.
- Place the muffin tins in the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Set your timer. (You don’t want to forget them at this high temperature.)
- After 5 minutes, without opening the oven door, turn the temperature down to 350 degrees
- Allow the muffins to finish cooking until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out with a few crumbs. The time will vary according to your oven. Set your timer and begin checking the muffins after 12 minutes, unless you know your oven runs on the hotter side. Mine took 13 minutes after turning down the heat, a total of 18 minutes of cooking time.
- Remove the tins from the oven. Wait 5 minutes and remove the muffins from the tins to cool. Enjoy while still warm, or allow to cool completely and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. (Honestly, these are best the day they’re made.)
Notes
“Disher” – If you are not familiar with this term, this gadget looks like an ice cream scoop with a thumb-spring. In the restaurant world, these scoops are numbered according to their size and their handles are colored, also. The #12 is just barely over 1.5-ounce capacity. It’s nice to have a variety of sizes of dishers. It makes portioning very convenient, especially for meatballs! I do not use dishers for ice cream, though. Mine do not seem to be sturdy enough to scoop frozen ice cream. Keep to the softer foods like cookie dough and muffin batter, unless you buy an industrial-strength disher.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
